Background: The Spinx convenience store at 498 The Parkway in Greenville County, South Carolina (WHNS/YouTube) Inset: Frank Arthur Lawson (Greenville County Sheriff”s Office)
A shopper at a South Carolina convenience store admitted to stabbing another person in a checkout line in the throat, authorities say.
Frank Arthur Lawson, 64, pled guilty on Monday to one count each of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, the state’s Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor’s Office announced. He was sentenced to 17 years in the South Carolina Department of Corrections.
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The charges stem from a June 2023 incident where Lawson was at a Spinx convenience store in Greenville County, South Carolina. According to authorities, Lawson and the unnamed victim “were in a disagreement about who was next in line” at the store when Lawson “pulled out a knife and stabbed the unarmed victim in the throat.”
The male victim survived the attack “due to the quick response of Greenville EMS” and the medical workers at the nearby hospital where the victim was brought, the Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor’s Office said.
Lawson has a criminal history in Greenville County dating back to the 1980s, according to court records reviewed by Law&Crime. In January 1989, he pled guilty to simple common law assault, with the original charge being a familiar one to 2023 – assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. In 2018, he was found guilty of receiving stolen goods of $2,000 or less.
The stabbing occurred at a Spinx near Greer, South Carolina, a city of about 45,000 people. Spinx stores are generally located in South Carolina, with some also in neighboring North Carolina.
Law&Crime has reached out to the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office and the Greenville County Courthouse for more information about this case.
